Results are slowly coming in across the country as we see if the exit polls were correct and we are indeed heading for a hung parliament again.

The last hung parliament came in the 2010 elections when the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats formed a coalition government.

(Picture: BBC)

What is an exit poll?

A random selection of people leaving polling stations have been asked who they voted for.

Over the course of the day (so results weren’t skewed by, for example, only asking people in the morning) thousands of people have been asked who they voted for.

The results are seen as more reliable at predicting the result than ordinary polls.

This is because the ambiguous factors of whether people will change their mind before election day, or if they will even turn out on the day, have been removed.

People might also be more likely to be cagey about their voting choice if asked on the phone, but more honest once they have actually puit their cross in the box. (For example, there were a lot of ‘shy Tories’ before David Cameron’s victory over Ed Miliband).

Polls in the run-up the election depend on finding a representative sample and trying to project that out for the country.

You can expect to hear people insisting exit polls have been wrong before – however, they tend to have the best track record of predicting the results.